The xmonad package

xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged
automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising
screen use. All features of the window manager are accessible from
the keyboard: a mouse is strictly optional. xmonad is written and
extensible in Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, and other
extensions, may be written by the user in config files. Layouts are
applied dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each
workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled
on several screens.

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Readme for xmonad-0.9.1

xmonad : a tiling window manager
http://xmonad.org
xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged
automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising
screen use. Window manager features are accessible from the
keyboard: a mouse is optional. xmonad is written, configured and
extensible in Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, key bindings and
other extensions may be written by the user in config files. Layouts
are applied dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each
workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled
on several physical screens.
Quick start:
Obtain the dependent libraries, then build with:
runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --user --prefix=$HOME
runhaskell Setup.lhs build
runhaskell Setup.lhs install --user
For the full story, read on.
Building:
Building is quite straightforward, and requires a basic Haskell toolchain.
On many systems xmonad is available as a binary package in your
package system (e.g. on Debian or Gentoo). If at all possible, use this
in preference to a source build, as the dependency resolution will be
simpler.
We'll now walk through the complete list of toolchain dependencies.
* GHC: the Glasgow Haskell Compiler
You first need a Haskell compiler. Your distribution's package
system will have binaries of GHC (the Glasgow Haskell Compiler), the
compiler we use, so install that first. If your operating system's
package system doesn't provide a binary version of GHC, you can find
them here:
http://haskell.org/ghc
For example, in Debian you would install GHC with:
apt-get install ghc6
It shouldn't be necessary to compile GHC from source -- every common
system has a pre-build binary version.
* X11 libraries:
Since you're building an X application, you'll need the C X11
library headers. On many platforms, these come pre-installed. For
others, such as Debian, you can get them from your package manager:
apt-get install libx11-dev
Typically you need: libXinerama libXext libX11
* Cabal
xmonad requires a recent version of Cabal, >= 1.2.0. If you're using
GHC 6.8, then it comes bundled with the right version. If you're
using GHC 6.6.x, you'll need to build and install Cabal from hackage
first:
http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/Cabal
You can check which version you have with the command:
$ ghc-pkg list Cabal
Cabal-1.2.2.0
* Haskell libraries: mtl, unix, X11
Finally, you need the Haskell libraries xmonad depends on. Since
you've a working GHC installation now, most of these will be
provided. To check whether you've got a package run 'ghc-pkg list
some_package_name'. You will need the following packages:
mtl http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/mtl
unix http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/unix
X11 http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/X11
* Build xmonad:
Once you've got all the dependencies in place (which should be
straightforward), build xmonad:
runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --user --prefix=$HOME
runhaskell Setup.lhs build
runhaskell Setup.lhs install --user
And you're done!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Running xmonad:
Add:
$HOME/bin/xmonad
to the last line of your .xsession or .xinitrc file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuring:
See the CONFIG document
------------------------------------------------------------------------
XMonadContrib
There are many extensions to xmonad available in the XMonadContrib
(xmc) library. Examples include an ion3-like tabbed layout, a
prompt/program launcher, and various other useful modules.
XMonadContrib is available at:
latest release: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/xmonad-contrib
darcs version: darcs get http://code.haskell.org/XMonadContrib
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other useful programs:
A nicer xterm replacement, that supports resizing better:
urxvt http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html
For custom status bars:
dzen http://gotmor.googlepages.com/dzen
xmobar http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/xmobar
For a program dispatch menu:
dmenu http://www.suckless.org/download/
gmrun (in your package system)
Authors:
Spencer Janssen
Don Stewart
Jason Creighton